The present invention relates to pockets suitable for incorporation in garments, luggage items, personal accessories or the like and in particular to pockets which are intended to prevent any items held in the pockets from falling out inadvertently.
It is commonplace to provide garments with pockets so that the owner can carry items around by placing them in the pockets. However, it is possible for items to be unintentionally ejected from or to fall out of those pockets due to movements of the user. This is particularly likely when a person begins to run which imparts a jolting motion to the pocket. When a person bends down causing the pocket to adopt an orientation unsuitable for containing an object the object will fall out. In the latter case shirt pockets are particularly susceptible to this problem. At best the occurrence of an item falling out of a pocket is an inconvenience. However, where items are valuable the resulting loss of the item or damage caused to the item through it falling out of the pocket can be a more serious issue. One known attempt to address this problem is through the inclusion of a fastening device such as a zip or button and hole arrangement to close the opening of the pocket. The provision of such devices can be beneficial but in certain cases can be detrimental to the appearance of the garment. Furthermore, such fastening devices require a person to remember to actively fasten closed the pocket opening. If a person forgets to do this, items can fall out of pockets as before. Another issue is that where a person does actually remember to fasten the device, they must actively unfasten the device in order to access the interior of the pocket and retrieve items located in that pocket. In those cases where frequent access to the pocket is required, the repeated task of fastening and unfastening of the pocket opening can become inconvenient which then discourages the user to fasten the pocket on a regular basis.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved pocket which is capable of reducing the likelihood of objects held therein from falling out inadvertently or being ejected accidentally.
In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a pocket suitable for incorporating in a garment, luggage item, personal accessory, or the like, said pocket including restriction means to restrict the insertion of objects into, or removal of objects from the pocket, the restriction means being controllable to cause the said restriction means to restrict to apply a restricting action on the occurrence of an enabling signal. The restriction means may be provided in the form of mechanical means responding to the enabling signal.
Therefore on the occurrence of the enabling signal the restriction means is activated to restrict the insertion into or removal of objects from the pocket. Such restriction serves to reduce the likelihood of objects held either partially or completely in the pocket from falling out inadvertently or being ejected accidentally.
The enabling signal may be generated at the command of the user. This allows the user to activate the restriction means at will which is typically done when the user is aware that they are about to commence an activity of the type bringing about circumstances in which it is possible that items may be ejected from the pocket. A user may choose to activate the restriction means for other reasons, for example when the user becomes aware that they are in an environment where the probability of unauthorised removal of objects from the pockets is relatively high.
The enabling signal may be generated in response to output signal status of at least one sensor. The sensor may be an orientation sensor arranged to produce an output signal dependent on the orientation of the pocket, the output signal initiating generation of the enabling signal when the pocket adopts an orientation in which it is possible that objects placed in the pocket will fall out.
A pocket featuring this arrangement is particularly suitable for use in the form of a shirt pocket. When someone wearing the shirt bends down towards the ground the pocket opening may become positioned closer to the ground than the base of the pocket which can cause any objects carried in the pocket to fall out of the pocket opening under the influence of gravity. However, with the present arrangement when a person wearing a shirt having a pocket made in accordance with the present invention bends down towards the ground the orientation sensor may establish that the pocket opening is about to be positioned closer to the ground than the pocket base and produces an output signal to initiate generation of the enabling signal and cause activation of the restriction means. Preferably the orientation sensor initiates generation of the enabling signal whenever it is possible that objects placed in the pockets will fall out which in practice includes orientations in addition to the case where the pocket opening is closer to the ground than the pocket base, for example when the pocket base and pocket opening are generally at the same distance from the ground, or where the pocket opening is further from the ground than the pocket base but by only a relatively small amount.
The sensor may be an accelerometer arranged to produce an output signal dependent on acceleration experienced by the pocket, the output signal initiating generation of the enabling signal when the sensor output signal indicates that the pocket is undergoing jolting movement. Such movement may be experienced when the pocket is being worn by a person who is running, in which case activation of the restriction means will help to prevent ejection of items held in the pocket.
Other aspects and optional features of the present invention appear in the appended claims which are incorporated herein by reference, and to which the reader is now referred.